The Texas BON's preceptor rules, next to UTRGV's syllabi

Updated September 27, 2026 · Reviewed by the UTRGV Preceptor placement team

Texas sets its standard for NP clinical training in two chapters of the Administrative Code. Chapter 219 describes how programs run preceptorships, and Chapter 221 sets what an APRN license requires, including a floor of 500 supervised clinical hours in each track. UTRGV's syllabi follow the same pattern: written agreements, objectives in the preceptor's hands before the first shift, and faculty who approve and oversee every site.

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500supervised clinical hours per APRN track under 22 TAC §221.3

6students at most per faculty member in an APRN clinical course, §219.10(f)

Which rules, and how far they reach

The rule text on this page comes from the Board of Nursing's December 2024 compilation. The BON cautions that a compilation is accurate only as of its cover date and points readers to the Secretary of State's code for later amendments.

Chapter 219 carries a scope limit. Under §219.1(a)(1), the Board approves only first-time applicant programs that lack a national accreditor, and UTRGV's accreditation page lists CCNE accreditation for its bachelor's, master's and doctoral nursing programs and its post-graduate APRN certificates. Chapter 219 therefore reads best as Texas's written standard for APRN preceptorships; neither UTRGV nor the BON says whether it binds UTRGV's graduate programs directly.

Chapter 221 works differently. It lists what the BON checks when you apply for APRN licensure, and the BON's application page asks for a program meeting Rule 221.3, so its hour and preceptorship terms reach you as an applicant whatever the program's approval status.

Who Texas counts as a qualified preceptor

Section 219.2(19) lets three kinds of clinician precept: advanced practice nurses, physicians, and other professionals the Board finds acceptable. Four conditions apply: the license is active and unencumbered, the clinician currently practices in the advanced specialty the student is training in, the clinician is committed to the advanced practice nurse role, and the clinician acts as supervisor and teacher while evaluating the student's clinical performance.

Section 219.10(e)(2) adds that a program must put its preceptor criteria in writing. Under that subsection, a competent clinician qualifies by holding APN authorization, or by holding a current health professions license and being able to supervise and teach where APN students learn. UTRGV writes narrower criteria, and they differ by course:

UTRGV's written preceptor criteria
Program or course	Who UTRGV accepts
FNP courses (`NURS 6305`, `NURS 6612`, `NURS 6613`)	Qualified and approved NPs, PAs or MDs/DOs
`NURS 6347` Role Development	At least two master's-prepared NPs at two different sites, one student per preceptor
PMHNP certificate	A psychiatrist certified by ABPN more than a year past residency, or a PMHNP certified by ANCC; never at the student's workplace
DNP (`NURS 8512`)	A physician and/or a DNP-prepared APRN

Preceptor requirements walks through each credential in detail.

What §219.10 asks of a program

Section 219.10 governs how programs manage clinical learning. Read in order, it calls for:

Faculty who answer for managing each student's clinical learning, subsection (a), and who pick and evaluate the agencies and settings used, subsection (c).
A written agreement between the program and every affiliating agency that sets out what each side owes the other, subsection (d).
For any preceptorship, written terms signed by the program, the preceptor and, if one is involved, the facility, each party's duties spelled out, (e)(1).
Preceptor selection criteria set down in writing, (e)(2).
Written clinical objectives that reach the preceptor before the experience begins, (e)(3).
One named faculty member responsible for the student's learning, talking with preceptor and student regularly and falling back on phone calls, written exchanges or clinical simulation when a site visit is not feasible, (e)(4).

The section sets no visit count. UTRGV's FNP syllabi say faculty make random site visits, and PMHNP oversight runs remotely through an assigned clinical faculty member; site visits and evaluations covers both.

Faculty ratios, and what they leave out

Section 219.10(f) caps a single APRN faculty member at six students in any one clinical course. When faculty supervise on site, the ceiling is two students each, or one if that faculty member is also carrying a patient caseload.

These limits bind faculty, not preceptors. The Texas rule names no number of students per preceptor; UTRGV sets its own in NURS 6347, which allows one student per preceptor. At UTRGV, each PMHNP student joins a clinical group with an assigned clinical faculty member, and FNP students in NURS 6612 and NURS 6613 notify all of their clinical faculty when they miss a clinical day. Under §219.10(e)(4), your preceptor should expect to hear from UTRGV faculty during the term, through a visit, a call or the evaluation forms.

Hours: §219.9 and §221.3

Two rules set the floor. Section 219.9(g) requires at least 500 clinical hours for each advanced role and specialty, each hour counted once, and §219.9(h)(1) holds post-master's students to the same 500 with no waivers. Section 221.3(i), the licensure rule, wants 500 supervised hours in every track, matched to the role and population focus on your future license, with medication management of patients built in.

Section 221.3 also requires programs of at least one academic year with a formal preceptorship, and defines the practicum as planned and monitored by designated faculty or a qualified preceptor. The BON's APRN application applies the 500-hour test to anyone who finished a program on or after January 1, 2003.

UTRGV totals against the 500-hour floor
Program	Clinical hours	Where the figure comes from
Post-master's FNP certificate	605	2026-27 catalog: `NURS 6347` 45, `NURS 6612` 224, `NURS 6613` 336
MSN-FNP	740 or 800	740 is our sum of the course figures; 800 is the archived 2023-24 guide's total
PMHNP certificate	520	Archived graduate FAQ and the 2017 graduation form
DNP	Not published	`NURS 8211` grades 100 logged hours; no program total appears

UTRGV's course rules echo the state's wording: FNP hours in one course cannot count for another taken the same term, and PMHNP students cannot carry over hours from an earlier program. Rules for counting hours goes through them.

The 500-hour rule is a floor, not a finish line. In NURS 6612 and NURS 6613, passing takes every required course hour plus a satisfactory preceptorship grade, whatever the theory grade.

Where the rules show up in UTRGV's syllabi

No UTRGV document we read cites §219.10 or §221.3 by number. Syllabus headers warn that content may change with new Texas legislative mandates, and the confidentiality statement every student signs cites §217.11 of the Nursing Practice Act. The match is in practice:

Texas rule and its UTRGV counterpart
Texas rule	What it asks	Where UTRGV does it
§219.10(d), (e)(1)	Written agreements with site and preceptor	An affiliation agreement through the Clinical Request Form (UTRGV's standard version or the site's own), plus the preceptor agreement and student commitment form
§219.10(e)(2)	Written preceptor criteria	Credentials named in each syllabus and in the PMHNP FAQ
§219.10(e)(3)	Objectives shared before the experience	`NURS 6612` objectives go to the preceptor with the Clinical Preceptor Agreement; the archived guide requires the Preceptor Orientation Packet before any clinical experience
§219.10(a), (e)(4)	Faculty responsible and in regular contact	Course coordinator approval of `NURS 6347` sites, random FNP site visits, PMHNP clearance from clinical faculty before hours
§219.10(e)(4)	Alternatives when visits are not feasible	PMHNP logs in Typhon that faculty can monitor, and virtual lab-group meetings in `NURS 6620`
§219.8(d)	An RN license or privilege where clinicals happen, telehealth included	A Texas RN license for FNP students; a license in the state of residence for PMHNP students

The documents themselves are on preceptor agreement and forms.

How we put these rules to work

Every preceptor we propose is checked against §219.2(19) and UTRGV's course criteria before you hear the name: an active, unencumbered license, current practice in your specialty, and a clear yes to teaching and evaluating. We help you get UTRGV's objectives and orientation packet to the preceptor ahead of day one, and we plan the schedule so your course hours land where UTRGV requires. Any replacement preceptor, if one is ever needed mid-term, goes through identical checks, so faculty see a candidate who already meets their criteria. That depth of preparation is why UTRGV NP students bring us in.

How it works shows the steps, and Texas NP practice explains the delegation rules your NP preceptors work under.

Questions UTRGV students ask

Does the Texas BON approve UTRGV's graduate nursing programs?

UTRGV's School of Nursing pages pair a general line about Texas Board of Nursing approval with CCNE accreditation, while the About page names the BSN as the BON-approved program. Under §219.1, Board approval of APRN programs is limited to those without national accreditation, and UTRGV's graduate programs hold CCNE accreditation. Accreditation has the detail.

Do Texas rules allow a PA to precept a nurse practitioner student?

Yes. The Texas definition of a qualified preceptor reaches health care professionals beyond APNs and physicians when the Board accepts them, and §219.10 counts licensed clinicians who can teach at the advanced practice level. UTRGV's FNP syllabi list PAs among approved preceptor types. The PMHNP certificate is stricter and accepts only ABPN-certified psychiatrists and ANCC-certified PMHNPs.

Does Texas require a faculty member to visit my clinical site?

Texas asks that a named faculty member keep up regular contact with both preceptor and student, and it allows phone calls, written communication or clinical simulation when a visit is not feasible. It sets no number of visits. UTRGV's FNP syllabi warn that faculty drop in on sites unannounced, so keep your weekly time report up to date.

Does the Texas license rule cover telehealth clinical hours?

Section 219.8(d) says students need an RN license or privilege in each state where they take part in clinical learning, and it names patient contact through telehealth among the experiences covered. Before logging telepsychiatry hours in the PMHNP courses, confirm with your clinical faculty which state's license applies to your setup.

Will hours from my earlier NP program transfer into UTRGV's PMHNP certificate?

No. Texas requires post-master's students to complete at least 500 clinical hours of their own and says those hours cannot be waived, and UTRGV's archived PMHNP FAQ answers the same question with a plain no. The certificate's 520 hours are all new, logged in Typhon with a preceptor UTRGV has approved.

UTRGV systemPreceptor requirementsWho may precept each UTRGV course: NPs, PAs or physicians for FNP, two NPs for NURS 6347, ABPN or ANCC board certification for PMHNP, and the DNP rule.UTRGV systemRules for counting hoursUTRGV's rules for counting clinical hours: no early finish without approval, no double counting, weekly loads, signed logs, PMHNP limits and the Texas minimum.UTRGV systemSite visits and evaluationsHow UTRGV faculty oversee clinicals: random FNP site visits, remote PMHNP oversight, evaluation forms both ways, and what it takes to pass a clinical course.UTRGV systemTexas NP practiceTexas NPs prescribe through a physician's delegation under a prescriptive authority agreement. What the rules require and what they mean for UTRGV clinicals.UTRGV systemAccreditationUTRGV's CCNE accreditation for the BSN, MSN, DNP and APRN certificates, Texas BON approval of the BSN, the NCLEX rates UTRGV reports, and what it leaves out.UTRGV systemPreceptor agreement and formsUTRGV's preceptor agreement, student commitment, orientation packet, Mandatory Weekly Time Report, evaluations and PMHNP hours letter: what each does and when.

Last checked 2026-09-27

We check these pages against UTRGV's own catalog, course syllabi, School of Nursing pages and Texas Board of Nursing rules. Your course faculty and the School of Nursing have the final word.

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Tell us your UTRGV program, where you live and when your next clinical course starts. We line up a willing preceptor who fits the course and UTRGV's rules, and hand you the details the Clinical Request Form, the affiliation agreement and the preceptor agreement ask for, well before the semester.

Family practice preceptors for NURS 6612 and NURS 6613, and two NP sites for NURS 6347
Board-certified psychiatric preceptors for NURS 6476 and NURS 6620, in your home state
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